Relentless
by idlesparrow
Summary: Rose Weasley is perfectly content with life. At least, that's what she believes until someone unexpected wakens her to feelings she never even knew existed. But it's mad, forbidden, and will surely end in hurt. If she could only believe he was worth it...
1. Welcome to Planet Rose

Rose Weasley hummed to herself cheerfully as she packed her trunk. Having turned seventeen a few months back, she was relishing the fact she could use magic in the holidays, gathering her belongings with an easy flick of her wand.

"You're out of tune." Rose turned to see her little brother Hugo leaning on the doorframe.

"What do you want?" She was in too good a mood to respond to his bait.

"Why are you so happy?"

"No reason," she tried to hide a smile. "Just pleased to be going back to Hogwarts tomorrow."

Hugo raised his eyebrows "To see Matt."

She blushed and tucked a red curl behind her ear. "No, to see everyone. I'm ready go back now, last year and all."

"Whatever Rose."

She narrowed her eyes, "Look, what are you here for?"

He grinned, "Mum says we're leaving now."

"Excellent, race you downstairs." Rose smirked, then apparated on the spot, leaving her brother to grumble as he stamped down the stairs alone.

Hugo arrived in the kitchen to see Hermione sponging a stain off Ron's shirt, while Rose sat on a counter top swinging her legs.

"Took your time Hugo." She smiled.

Ron caught his son's eye over Hermione's head. "Women," he mouthed.

"Ron, go and change your shirt," said Hermione in exasperation. "We'll go on ahead."

"Hermione no one is going to care what I look like. We're only going to the Burrow."

"Ron!" Hermione was sounding dangerous now.

"Fine! You three go, Hugo can do side-along apparition with one of you."

"I'll wait and go with you Dad." Hugo interjected, causing Rose to laugh as she left.

###

"Hi Nana," Rose grinned as Molly engulfed her in a hug, ushering her and Hermione through the door of the burrow.

"Hello Rose dear, hi Hermione, come in, come in. But where're the boys?"

"Hugo was going to come by side-along apparition with Ron," Hermione explained. "I don't know why they're not here already."

"Dad's probably splinched them both," said Rose cheerfully, ignoring Hermione's pointed look, "Is Al here yet?"

"Oh yes, you lot are last to arrive," Molly smiled. "You can join in on de-gnoming the garden, Rosie. We don't want those things round our feet at the barbeque. Stay away from Granddad though, he's insisting on lighting that thing without magic. In fact Hermione, if you could possibly lend a hand…"

Rose walked away from the two of them and headed through the house to the back garden.

"Watch out!"

She ducked quickly, just avoiding a gnome streaking dangerously close to her head.

"Al you idiot! Are you trying to kill me?"

Albus grinned weakly, "Well how was I supposed to know you'd walk out right then."

"You obviously planned it."

"Yeh I was saving that gnome for you, really Rose-

"It was coming right at-"

"Ok you two, enough already." Lily stepped in between them, always the voice of reason. "Hi Rose, you're a bit late aren't you? Help us with the de-gnoming. James and Fred are mucking around and trying to herd the damn things, and Molly's scared of them."

Rose raised her eyebrows at her Uncle Percy's daughter Molly, sitting on the wall reading. At the end of the garden, Fred and James hadn't even noticed her arrival, though they seemed to have succeeded in arranging a group of gnomes into height order.

"You know I can't believe Hogwarts let them graduate." Rose said shaking her head.

"Me neither," Al grinned. "Come help me over here."

Rose followed him. "Hey Al, have you heard from Matt yet, like, do you know if he's back from Australia?"

"No idea. I dunno why you think he would contact me before you anyway. I'm only his best mate after all. It's not like you've totally taken me over in his affections or anything," Al joked.

Rose smiled and bent to pick up a gnome, "I was just asking, it's only he promised he'd owl me as soon as he was back, and I thought I'd get one this morning."

"Jeez, high maintenance or what? I feel sorry for the guy, I mean- OW!"

"Sorry, it jumped right out of my hands. Crafty little bugger." Rose smirked.

"Right you're for it now!"

Rose squealed and started running, as Al grabbed some ammunition.

###

Forty minutes later, Rose watched her whole family sitting and eating in little groups around the (mostly) gnome-free lawn. The women were lounging on deckchairs in the last patch of light before evening. Her Nana Molly was there, talking to her Aunties, Fleur, Audrey, Angelina and Ginny, along with her mother. Her older cousin Dominique sat with them, happily ignoring her Nana's nagging on wearing "too much makeup!" Victoire and Teddy were leaning on the trunk of the birch tree in the corner. The men stood over by the barbeque. Arthur was talking to Percy, while George, Harry and Ron discussed a new Wheeze's product just behind them. Rose sat with the rest of her cousins; Al, James and Lily, Fred and Roxanne, Molly, Lucy, Louis and Hugo (who had arrived in one piece). It was surprisingly warm for the last day of summer and she loved being surrounded by her family. But she found herself longing for Hogwarts. She missed her friends and Matt, whom she'd been dating for a month before summer. Plus she was going into her final year, which she decided was bound to be her best.

"Hogwarts'll be no fun next year without Fred and I there." James voice broke her chain of thought.

"Nah," Al said. "It'll be better. Especially as I'm Gryffindor Quidditch Captain this year."

"Yeh well just make sure you guys win." James folded his arms and smirked, "Maybe I can get you a place on the Arrows as well when you finish."

"Let's see if you can make it to the starting line up first, yeh James?"

"Oi! I'll have you know that-"

Rose's attention was taken away from the boys bickering as she watched her Dad waving his arms around. Overexcited at something George had said, he accidentally sent her Uncle Percy's hotdog flying into his face. She grinned as Percy started shouting, and leaned against Lily as everyone looked up to enjoy the show.

###

The next morning passed in a flash, with Rose and Hugo dashing around trying to uncover lost books and Ron sitting in the car, impatiently tooting the horn. Finally the four of them set off to Kings Cross, arriving with just five minutes to spare before the train left. Rose strained to see Matt, but couldn't find him anywhere. She let her Dad and Uncle Harry fight over who was carrying her trunk onto the train and went to hug her mother goodbye.

"Be good Rose, darling. Look after your brother. And remember to do all your prefect duties."

"Well I'm hardly likely to forget Mum. They basically force us you know."

Hermione smiled fondly at her daughter. "Remember to owl, we got you Artemis for a reason."

Ron had jumped off the train by now, and grabbed Rose in a tight hug. "Bye Rosie. Keep up the good grades. Don't spend too much time with that boy."

"Dad," she grumbled. "People can see you know." But she smiled.

Hugo said a quick goodbye, and the pair of them jumped quickly onto the train as the whistle blew. Rose stood next to Al and Lily, as they leaned out and waved to their parents while the trained pulled away.

"Coming to the prefect's compartment first Rose?" Al asked.

"Yeh let's go." Rose swung around quickly, and careered into someone so hard that she was knocked off her feet.

"Real smooth Weasley," said a sneering voice above her, and Rose found herself looking up into the cold grey eyes of Scorpius Malfoy, her least favourite person in Hogwarts.


	2. Back to the Old Routine

"Get lost Malfoy." Al immediately sprung to her defence, squaring up to Scorpius. Lily reached down and tried to haul her cousin off the ground, but Rose swatted her off in embarrassment, pulling herself up using a carriage door.

Scorpius shot her an amused look but addressed her cousin. "I am merely standing here Potter. I think it was Weasley who barged into me. Of course I can't blame her; I understand that she finds me irresistible."

"It's not my fault your big head blocks the whole corridor Malfoy!" Rose butted in before Albus did something stupid. She hated Scorpius for his arrogance and his ability to stay composed whenever they had a slanging match, which always left her angry and flustered.

"Let's go," she muttered to her cousin, grabbing his arm and dragging him down the corridor towards the prefects' compartment. Scorpius grinned for a moment at her retreating back, before following the two of them down the corridor.

Rose scowled to herself as she looked up and saw Scorpius enter the prefects' compartment. For a glorious moment she had almost forgotten he was also on the prefect team. To be fair, throughout most of her time at Hogwarts, she had tried to have as little to do with him as possible. He had gotten on her bad side the first time they met, when, as an eleven year old aboard the Hogwart's Express, he had made a passing ginger jibe at her. Rose could deal with redhead, scarlet, chestnut, auburn etc. but she did not like being called ginger. This- along with her father's warning right before she got on the train- planted in her an immediate dislike for Scorpius, which her cousins quickly caught onto. Perhaps Ron had not thought how great an impact his words had on an eleven year old, but as he had told his daughter to beat Scorpius in every class, she had determined to do so, and on the quidditch pitch as well.

Of course Rose realised Scorpius had changed a lot since the first time they had met on the platform in first year. From being small and skinny he had grown huge, at least six foot tall, broad shouldered and built from quidditch training.

"Protein shakes I bet." Rose mumbled to herself.

"What?" said Al, sitting next to her.

"Huh? Nothing."

Rose continued her glowering at Scorpius. She noticed the girls around her looking flushed when he entered. This was rather a common occurrence with him, his good looks and cool manner normally left girls falling at his feet, earning him a bit of a reputation as a player. Rose might possibly have agreed that he was quite handsome…if the sight of him didn't make her sick of course. And she was pretty sure he had a girlfriend. He was definitely seeing that dark-haired Ravenclaw in the year below them before the holidays. But then again, Scorpius's girlfriends never seemed to last long.

Her musings were interrupted by the arrival of the head boy and girl, ready to give their start of year speech. Rose lazed back as they talked, she had heard it all before. Forgetting all about Scorpius, she let her thoughts drift to Matt, she was going to search him out as soon as this meeting was over, and it was taking forever.

As soon as they had finished there was a dash towards the doors, and Rose made sure she was at the head of it. She began fighting her way down the corridor, until she heard Scorpius call after her;

"See you for corridor duty later this week then!"

She stopped sharply, "What?!"

He smirked, "Oh dear Weasley weren't you listening in the meeting? You're paired with me for patrolling the corridors after dark."

"There is no way in hell I'm going anywhere with you after dark Malfoy."

"I'm afraid you don't have a choice Weasley, it's all sorted now. Shouldn't have been dreaming during the meeting should you." He gave her one last sneer, and then strolled past her to find his friends, or possibly that dark-haired Ravenclaw. Who cared? Rose stood there with her mouth open for a few seconds until Albus caught up to her.

"You alright? You look like you've just eaten a blast-ended skrewt."

Rose punched him on the shoulder. "Why did you let me get paired with Malfoy?!"

"Ow Rose! I dunno, you didn't complain at the time."

"I wasn't listening in the meeting!"

"Well serves you right then. Look never mind, it's only one night a week. Let's go find the others."

Rose kept grumbling but followed Albus down the corridor until he stopped outside a compartment containing some of their fellow Gryffindors; Rose's roommates Louise Macmillan and Tina Sloper, and Albus's friends Brady Finnigan and Matt Jordan.  
Rose promptly forgot her annoyance when she saw Matt and she started smiling instead, quickly patting down her mad curls and silently cursing her mother for passing them on to her. Matt got up and greeted Albus with a slap on the back and then grabbed Rose in a hug which lifted her off her feet.

"Get a room!" yelled Albus and Rose pulled a face at the jeers from her friends.

"Come on." She pulled Matt out into the corridor.

"I missed you Rose." He smiled and bent to kiss her.

###

A few minutes later, after they felt sufficiently reacquainted they headed back into the compartment with their friends, where a loud debate was taking place over who Albus should be putting into the Gryffindor Quidditch team this year in James's old place as Chaser.

"As long as you don't chuck us off, eh Al?" Matt sat down next to his friend, patting the seat on the other side of him for Rose. Matt was a Beater on the Gryffindor team, while Rose played Chaser and Albus was, of course, the Seeker.

"You know Slytherin have a pretty good team this year Al?" Brady asked. "I heard Malfoy was told he was going to be captain last year, and he's been planning the team since then."

"Don't remind me." Al groaned.

Rose scowled at the mention of Scorpius's name, and squeezed Matt's hand which was entwined in hers. He looked around at her and smiled,

"I'm sorry I didn't owl you yesterday Rose. We didn't get back until last night, I thought we'd be back earlier."

"Oh," Rose smiled back at him. "It's fine, I wasn't worried." She saw Albus grinning at her over Matt's shoulder and narrow her eyes at him, daring him to say something. "So," she said brightly. "Who's for some exploding snap?"

###

"Rach!" Rose squealed and threw her arms around her best friend. "I missed you like crazy, how was France?"

"Urgh unbelievably dull," Rachel's eyes sparkled as she looked at her friend. "I'm actually really glad to be back. Too much family bonding time, stuck in the middle of nowhere with only my parents and an annoying little brother for company. I have no idea what Dad was thinking."

Rachel Longbottom had been Rose's best friend for as long as she could remember. Their parents were old friends and the girls had grown up together. Rachel hadn't been on the Hogwart's Express, her father Neville was the herbology teacher at Hogwarts and had arrived in school a day earlier than the pupils. Rachel and her brother Tom had come along early with him to help prepare his greenhouses for the year.

Rose laughed and grabbed her friends arm, pulling her into the Great Hall. The girls settled at the top of the Gryffindor table beside Albus and Matt, who were already impatient for food to arrive.

"Come on Sprout, let's get this over with so we can eat." Albus was staring in a rather manic fashion at their Headmistress.

"You know the Sorting is really important, right Albus?" Rose raised her eyebrows.

"It's also important that I don't waste away from hunger."

"Merlin no, I wouldn't want that." Rose's voice dripped sarcasm.

"And that's why you're my favourite cousin." Albus grinned at her.

Rachel was digging in the pocket of her robes. "Here guys, I managed to dig up our timetables early." She handed out the timetables to the four of them, and then got up to pass some to their fellow seventh years, stopping for a moment to say hello. When she got back it was to hear Rose complaining loudly;

"I can't believe this, double Potions first thing. What a way to start to the year. And no Arithmancy tomorrow."

"Why would you take Arithmancy anyway?" Matt was glancing at her timetable. "It sounds so complicated."

"It's my favourite!" Rose said indignantly, swatting him on the shoulder. "Anyway, I like to keep my options open. I have no idea what I want to be yet."

Their conversation was interrupted by the arrival of the Sorting Hat, and they didn't commence talking again until the last eleven year old had been sorted and food had appeared on the plates in front of them.

"It's good." grunted Albus, mouth full of roast beef. Rose and Rachel looked at each other.

"_Guys._" Rachel mouthed, rolling her eyes.

###

A while later when the meal was over, Professor Sprout rose to say a few words. Rose only caught a few of them, she was busy staring at Matt, thoughts full of how cute he looked when he was listening intently. She allowed her eyes to drift fondly around the Great Hall, she was pleased to be back really, she loved Hogwarts. Rose's eyes flickered to the Slytherin table and landed on Scorpius Malfoy. She scowled. At that moment he looked up and caught her staring. He raised his eyebrows and Rose looked away quickly, furious with herself. Now he would surely be thinking she has been staring at him for ages.

"Are you ok, Rose?" whispered Matt beside her, "You look a little red."

"What? Oh, I'm fine." She blushed, and was startled by the sudden applause breaking out around her. Professor Sprout had finished speaking, and the students were beginning to stand.

"Let's go unpack," said Rachel, getting up. "I am absolutely shattered."

The four of them headed for Gryffindor tower, where the girls bid the boys goodnight and headed up the stairs to their familiar round dormitory. They were the first two there. Rachel immediately flopped down on her bed, while Rose started unpacking her trunk rather forcefully.

"You alright Rose? You seem a bit…" Rachel tailed off.

"I'm just annoyed at being forced to do my stupid prefect rounds with Malfoy, that arrogant prat. Did you see him in dinner? Sitting there smirking as usual, thinking he owns the place. He's going to drive me crazy."

Rachel pursed her lips to stop herself laughing at her friend's annoyance.

"Who's going to drive you crazy?" Their roommate Louise Macmillan entered the room, followed by Tina Sloper.

"Scorpius Malfoy." Rachel filled them in.

"Ah. Wouldn't mind getting into him." Louise grinned.

"Are you out of your mind?" Rose looked affronted.

"Well, he does have a nice arse." shrugged Louise, smiling when she saw the look on Rose's face. The other girls started laughing.

Rose was exasperated. "So I suppose it doesn't matter how much of a git he is then? As long as he has a nice arse I mean."

Louise flumped down on her bed. "Now you get it. Hey, you know who else has gotten hotter over the summer? Al."

Rose just stared at her and shook her head slowly. "Louise that is truly revolting." Honestly, sometimes she wondered about her friend's sanity.

**AN: I hope you enjoyed this. These first chapters were really just bringing things together, but next chapter the real drama starts. Feel free to review, I'd really appreciate it. Thanks for reading. :D**


	3. Just a Strong Dislike

"Cheers Al!" Rose dropped down on the seat next to her cousin grabbing a slice of toast from his plate and ignoring his cries of protest.

"You've cheered up this morning." Matt smiled at her from his seat opposite Albus and moved his schoolbag so Rachel could sit next to him.

"I overreacted yesterday." Rose shrugged. "I'm not gonna let some quality time spent with Malfoy get in the way of me enjoying my last year."

"Good. I need you pumped and ready for Quidditch practice this afternoon." Al glanced suspiciously around the Great Hall and lowered his voice. "I've got some ideas for new tactics we need to try out. And I'll need help deciding who we can get to fill the free position."

Rose smiled at Matt across the table and he winked back at her. Their team needed a replacement chaser since James had left, and they knew Al was determined that under him the team would surpass the heights it had reached under James's captaincy.

"Double free first thing." Rachel interrupted the Quidditch talk and smiled as she reached for the jam, her green eyes sparkling. "Don't suppose you have as well Rose?"

"Nah. Double Potions." Rose sighed and violently stabbed a sausage. "I hope Louise manages to drag herself out of bed on time. I'm not being late waiting for her again."

"You called?" asked a voice behind her. Louise flumped down dramatically in the seat next to Rachel, while Tina sat next to Rose and grabbed the bacon.

"Honestly. How can they expect us to handle double Potions first day back?" Louise said passionately, fluffing her blonde hair with her fingers. She looked down the table.

"Alright Al?" she winked at him.

Rachel snorted into her orange juice.

"Just eat." Rose groaned. "We're going to be late as it is."

"You coming to Care of Magical Creatures Matt?" Al asked his friend, eyeing Louise warily.

The boys got up to leave and Matt gave Rose a quick kiss on the cheek. "See you at lunch."

Rose watched his dark head disappearing through the crowds, chin resting on her hand.

"All this soppy love stuff really is quite sickening you know." Rachel said conversationally, grinning at her friend.

###

Ten minutes later, Rose and Louise were setting up their cauldrons in the dungeon, Louise humming to herself absently. Professor Ramses was late, and Rose was half hoping she wouldn't turn up. She didn't much like their scornful Potions teacher. A squeal of girlish laughter at the front of the classroom made Rose look up. Rhiannon Pucey was sitting with a fellow Slytherin female, giggling at a joke Scorpius had made as he leant on their desk lazily. She was fluttering her eyelashes up at him in a way that left Rose feeling completely nauseated.

"Yuck." Rose grumbled.

"Yeh, she is a bit." Louise said cheerfully. She and Rhiannon had had dealings in the past.

"Why is she looking at him as if he's God's gift? It's not like he needs any encouragement." Rose complained.

"Well she is an idiot. But look at those muscles." Louise had a dreamy expression on her face."

"Hey enough drooling!" Rose said sharply.

"Silence!" a loud voice interrupted them, as Professor Ramses stamped into the classroom.

"You should be set up already. Today we will be making a dangerously strong sleeping draft and unless you want to be testing it you will get started right away. Turn to page 324 and follow the instructions precisely. Precisely, mind!"

"Hope you had a good summer too." Rose muttered to herself, opening her book, and running her finger down the list of ingredients.

"Talking to yourself is never a good sign, Weasley." said a sneering voice in front of her, and she looked up to see Scorpius had sat down at the desk in front of them. Instead of following Professor Ramses instructions he was slumped on his stool facing them, the infamous Malfoy smirk on his face.

"Go away Malfoy." she scowled.

"I can't, I am in this class you know." His smile broadened as the tips of her ears went red.

"You are such a-"

"Rose Weasley how hard is it to follow some simple instructions?" Professor Ramses had looked up at that precise moment.

"Sorry Professor." Rose grumbled, and throwing a last fierce glare at Scorpius, she stalked over to the supply closet.

Scorpius frowned for a moment, and made to say something. Then he seemed to think better of it and sat down and opened his own book.

###

A while later, Rose was stirring her potion slowly clockwise, waiting the few minutes it took for the colour to change. She looked over at Louise, who was still humming as she mashed her pods. Louise always hummed when she was concentrating, but luckily Rose was used to it and had learned to tune it out. Her eyes skimmed the familiar classroom. Geordie Bones of Hufflepuff was looking nervous, his potion had bubbles floating from the top of it, which he was quickly popping before Professor Ramses could notice. Rhiannon Pucey was looking bored and applying lip gloss from behind her cauldron. Scorpius's best friend Seth Harper was frowning at his potion and muttering as he poked it with his wand.

Scorpius himself was bent over his work, brow creased in attentiveness, slicing his roots exactly as they should be. Watching him like this, Rose understood why he was her main competition in classes. He hadn't the extreme natural intelligence she was lucky enough to have inherited from her Mother, but he was a very hard worker. She found this surprising in a way. If she hadn't known him, she would have guessed he was the type of boy to be more interested in girls and mucking around with his mates than getting good grades. She wondered if he had a lot of pressure from home.

"Rose it's purple now." Lousie whispered beside her.

Rose blinked, "Thanks!" she said gratefully, beginning to decant the potion.

"Dreaming of Matt again eh?" Louise teased. "He's not good for your work you know."

Rose laughed rather uneasily.

"I think he's even worse than James." Hugo muttered to Rose that evening.

"He's got a lot to live up to. It's younger-brother syndrome." She whispered back grinning. "You should know all about it."

They were sitting with the rest of the Gryffindor Quidditch team in the stalls surrounding the pitch. Muddy and exhausted, they had just finished practice and were listening to Albus go over the problems from the session again and again.

Luckily enough, they had managed to find a new chaser, Bobby Creevey, a second year with "bags of potential" as Albus had said. Rose was pleased with the choice, Bobby worked well with her and Lydia, a chaser in Hugo's year who had joined the team the year before.

"Somebody shut him up before I'm forced to." Natalie Thompson muttered forcefully from Rose's other side. Natalie was their other beater besides Matt, a small and wiry forth year who at first glance seemed sweet and innocent looking, but had amazed the team last year with her strength in knocking Bludgers from one side of the pitch to the other. Not to mention her fiery temper and competitive nature.

"Um, Al? Do you think we could hit the showers now?" Rose interrupted her cousin.  
Albus looked startled. In his ranting, he had rather lost track of time.

"Huh? I suppose. One more lap around the pitch before we go I think. Quit groaning, do you want to win? ...Hey! What the hell are Slytherin doing here?"

Rose looked down from the stands, and sure enough, Scorpius was strolling onto the pitch, followed by the rest of his team.

She groaned, "Just leave it Al, we're about to go anyway-"

But Albus was already flying to the ground, closely followed by Matt and the rest of her team mates. Rose really couldn't be bothered with the confrontation, but she followed them down. On reaching them, she saw Al and Matt were already shoulder to shoulder, squared up against Scorpius and Seth.

"Get off the pitch Malfoy. I booked it and we still have five minutes of time left." Albus growled.

"Five minutes?! What's the big deal? You aren't even using the pitch." Scorpius rolled his eyes.

"So? We booked it fair and square. You can wait the five minutes."

"You're being ridiculous Potter." scowled Seth.

"Oh am I? You obviously came here early to spy on us training. Worried about getting knocked off the pitch by us in the first match are you?" Al said fiercely. Rose groaned, she loved her cousin, but at times like this she had to agree he was ridiculous.

"Are you having a laugh? I couldn't care less about your stupid tactics Potter. All we want to do is some training before it gets too dark, you idiot." Scorpius spluttered.

"Watch your mouth Malfoy," Matt butted in, "Don't call him an-"

"Guys just leave it." Rose tugged on Matt's arm. "Let's go, who cares what he says?"

"Weasley, didn't see you down there." Malfoy drawled, starting to smirk. "Hope you're not forgetting about our duty night tonight."

Matt slid an arm protectively around Rose's shoulders, scowling at Scorpius, who laughed slyly.

"Don't worry, Jordan. I'll look after her for you."

Matt darted forward at Scorpius, stopped by Albus and Rose grabbing his arms.

"Please, will you just leave it?!" Rose said, exasperated.

Matt visibly relaxed, though he didn't take his eyes off Scorpius. Rose sighed, relieved, and grabbed his hand, starting to pull him away."

"Do you always do what she tells you?" Scorpius shouted after them. Matt threw an angry look over his shoulder but didn't stop walking, the rest of the Gryffindor team were following behind them.

When they got to the changing rooms, Rose grabbed Matt and pulled him round the side of the building as the rest of the team went in.

"You shouldn't rise to what he says you know. That's what he wants." She shrugged, "I know I'm a bit of a hypocrite sometimes, but no need to get violent."

"Yeh well, he was bringing you into it, wasn't he? You expect me just to let him?"

"Yes! Just ignore him; he's trying to wind you up. I'm used to him, I don't care!"

"Well I do." Matt folded his arms and his face took on a grumpy expression that Rose found particularly endearing.

"You _are_ an idiot you know." She said fondly, anger abating.

He smiled and reached down and kissed her. They were so carried away in the next few minutes they didn't look up until an angry yell from Hugo, who had just walked out the building, startled them;

"Oi! That's my sister. I don't want to see that!"

Rose looked over at her brother striding away irritably, and then back at Matt, as the two of them fought not to laugh.

Rose was waiting for Scorpius. Sitting on the bottom step of the Great Hall staircase, she nervously twisted a red curl around her finger. She didn't know why she was feeling nervous, but it was annoying her. And she was angry with Scorpius. Firstly because of the way in which he had behaved earlier, and secondly because he was late.

Suddenly she heard footsteps coming from the steps towards the dungeons, and as she looked up Scorpius appeared at the top of them, cool, calm and smirking as always.

"Alright Weasley?"

"You're late." she snarled and started heading up the stairs. "I hate it when people are late."

"I know. That's why I _am_ late." He followed her, grinning in the way he knew really wound her up.

"What the hell Malfoy?! It's bad enough that we have to do this at all. Are you this annoying to everyone?" She was getting worked up. Even though she had promised herself she wouldn't.

Scorpius looked pleased. "Well I try especially hard for you. You should feel honoured."

Rose threw him a furious look, before striding off down the nearest corridor.

Scorpius quickened his pace to keep up, still grinning. "You know when you look at me like that you remind me of a Veela. When they turn ugly in rage, of course. You should change your expression, I'm rather embarrassed to be seen with you."

"You make me sick Malfoy! Why do you think you're so much better than everyone else?" Rose fumed.

"Temper, Weasley." he tutted, eyes sparkling.

Rose had had enough. "Stuff this! I don't care about duty; I'm going back to house. I'm not hanging around you any longer."

She turned on her heel and made for the staircase they had just past, stamping up it and completely ignoring Scorpius behind her."

Scorpius blinked, "Oi, watch out for the-"

His warning was drowned out by Rose's yell of surprise, as she found herself trapped up to her thigh in a trick stair she'd forgotten in her rage.

Scorpius burst out laughing as she struggled to get out, blushing and shouting obscenities at him.

"Are you ok?" He managed to stop himself laughing and climbed the stair, crouching down to her level.

"What do you care?! Get lost Malfoy!" Rose was attempting to swat him away viciously.

"Yeh 'cos that would do a lot of good wouldn't it?" he said sarcastically. "Look shut up for a minute. Stop hitting at me or I can't help you!"

"I don't want your help." she grumbled sourly.

"Well tough, I'm not leaving you stuck in the stair."

She still scowled at him, but seemed to give in.

"Ok, now if I help you out you actually have to do the duty with me. Agreed?" he raised an eyebrow.

"I will if you stop being such a git."

He laughed. "Stubborn as always Weasley. I'll try." He offered her a hand.

Rose hesitated for a moment, deciding between her pride and the sensible thing to do. For once, the sensible option won out, and she placed her hand in his much larger one, allowing him to lift her out onto his step effortlessly. Scorpius waited a moment as she brushed herself down and composed herself. Then she looked up at him and muttered a gruff;

"Thanks."

He nodded.

Rose narrowed her eyes. "What? No rude comments? No sarcastic digs?"

"I said I'd try to be civil, didn't I?"

"Oh." She thought about this for a moment. Then seemed to come to a decision.

"Let's go." she said. "Lumos!"

They climbed the stairs and wandered along a corridor in silence. Rose looked up at Scorpius's face as she walked slightly behind him. His features were both illuminated and shadowed by the partial light, and he had the same look of concentration he wore in Potions, though perhaps a little less severe.

"Stop staring at me Weasley." he said without turning round.

"I wasn't!" she gasped, affronted.

"Yes you were."

"I bloody well wasn't."

"You were."

She stopped still. "See what I mean?! You're back to being an ass again. Can't you even…stop laughing!"

"I can't help it." he chuckled. "You are so easy to wind up."

"I am not."

"Don't start that again."

"Merlin! You are so annoying." Rose huffed.

"And you really are a psycho, Weasley. Talk about a short fuse. Goes from calm to raging in three seconds. Be a good range in broomsticks." he said thoughtfully.

She stared at him. He exasperated her, but for some reason she was finding it hard not to smile. "You are unbelievable."

"Thanks."

"That wasn't a compliment…hey wait, who's that?"

A couple had emerged from behind a tapestry slightly ahead of them. They stopped dead as soon as they saw the two prefects.

Malfoy shone his wand on them. "Back to house Pritchard. And you Chen. Quickly now."

The two of them sped off fast in the direction of Ravenclaw.

"Not deducting points?" Rose raised her eyebrows at him. "I would have thought you were the kind of guy who got high on power."

Scorpius scowled at her. "Well I'm not." He began striding forward down the corridor and Rose suddenly felt bad. It wasn't often she saw him lose his cool.

"Hey, slow down." She called after him, "I didn't really mean it."

He looked back at her and seemed to soften a little, waiting for her to catch up.

"Ok then. And anyway," he grinned, "If I did start punishing them for being out together after dark I'd be making myself a bit of a hypocrite."

"Eww Malfoy, too much information." Rose groaned, but couldn't help feeling a little relieved.

"We should check the dungeons before we finish, yeh?" asked Scorpius.

Rose nodded, and they started making their way down a different course than they had come up by.

They were silent for a while, until Rose decided to speak up.

"You know, you didn't have to be so horrible to Matt earlier."

He raised an eyebrow. "I wasn't aware I was. What did I say?"

She narrowed her eyes. "You know what you said."

He looked sideways at her. "Fine. I dunno, I couldn't help it. Just the way he was looking at me"

"Well that's because you're…" she cut off.

"I'm what?" he was speaking calmly, but she could see his lips were thinning.

"I dunno, just…"

"A Malfoy?"

"No! A moron."

He grinned suddenly, "Same thing, no?"

Rose sighed. "Look you didn't have to show up at the pitch when we were still training." They turned the corner into another corridor.

"We had perfect right to be there and you know it. You guys were finished! We weren't bothering you." Scorpius protested.

"Alright fine! I'm sorry, let's change the subject."

"No, what?" he was surprised now. "Why are you saying sorry?"

"I dunno. Does it matter? It's bloody freezing down here." Rose had folded her arms in a bid to keep warm.

Scorpius found himself grinning again. "You are so odd, you know that? Do you want my cloak?"

"No." She said childishly. "It has Slytherin stuff on it!"

She half expected him to take offence again, but he started laughing.

"Go on, no one'll see. You might even find you like it."

She pursed her lips at him. "Well I'm definitely not taking it now."

He shrugged "Suit yourself."

They walked down along another corridor and Rose shivered.

"Actually," she said quietly, "Do you think I could borrow it? Just until the end of duty…"

Scorpius smirked triumphantly, "Eleven seconds."

"What?"

"Till you gave in."

"Right forget it!"

"Just take it you idiot" he groaned, tossing the cloak to her.

"Thanks." she said again. And then, "Can I ask you something?"

"No."

She ignored him. "Why are you being so nice to me all of a sudden?"

"When wasn't I nice to you before?" he said in mock surprise.

She gave him a look. "Always! You know, just teasing me all the time. And calling me names and stuff."

"I can't resist Weasley. You just make it so easy for me. And anyway you decided to hate me from the first time you met me, just because I made one harmless, little ginger joke."

"You knew I was mad about that?" Rose was shocked.

"Well it was pretty obvious." he grinned.

"Ok fine. Maybe it sounds stupid now." she smiled. "But I was eleven. And you could have apologised."

"More fun this way." he shrugged. "Anyway it wouldn't have stopped you hating me."

"I don't hate you." The words slipped from Rose's mouth before she'd thought about them, surprising even herself. She wasn't even sure if it was true, but at the moment she didn't feel particularly hateful.

He stopped and turned to face her, eyebrows raised in disbelief.

Rose gave a nervously uncharacteristic giggle. "Well ok, maybe I did hate you. But now I'd say it's softened to a strong dislike."

"Well now that's progress." he grinned back at her.

They were both laughing now, but were interrupted by a beeping noise coming from Scorpius's watch.

He looked down at his wrist. "It's past midnight! You'd better get back to the tower."

"Damn, how can it be that late? I'll never be able to get up for Arithmancy tomorrow."

"Me neither. Oh well never mind that lesson sends me to sleep anyway. I'll walk you back to house."

"Don't be stupid. You don't have to do that." she said, surprised.

"I'm not letting you wander around the castle alone in the dark. Do you even know they way out of these dungeons?"

"Of course I do! I've been at this school as long as you, you know, even if I don't sleep down here." She started moving off as if to prove she knew where she was going.

"Whatever. I'd still feel better if I walked you and I'm coming." Scorpius followed her, and they began to walk together.

"Since when did you become so chivalrous?" Rose teased.

"I'll have you know that I always have been." He pretended to huff. "Hey do you think we'll have another one of those 'Welcome Back Tests' in Arithmancy tomorrow? Like we had last year."

She shuddered, "I hope not. I haven't revised"

He grinned, "Excellent. I will definitely beat you then."

She laughed, "In your dreams, Malfoy."

They continued with their gentle bickering until they reached the corridor with the portrait of the Fat Lady.

"Well. This is it." Rose took off Scorpius's cloak and handed it back to him. "Thanks for the cloak. And for walking me back. And rescuing me from the stair and all that."

Scorpius smirked. "No problem. Just listen to people before you try to dive through the stairs next time." He started walking away down the corridor. "See you around, Ginge."

With that he vanished round the corner. Rose stared at the space where he'd disappeared for a second, shaking her head incredulously. Then she looked up at the Fat Lady, who was frowning at her suspiciously.

"Pygmy Puff." she said, ignoring the stare, and climbed in the hole when it opened.

She was about to go up the stairs to her dormitory when she spotted someone sleeping in a chair by the fire. It was Matt. She walked over and shook his shoulder gently to wake him.

"Huh? What? Rose?" he mumbled sleepily.

"Yes it's me. What are you doing up?" she squeezed his hand gently.

"I was waiting for you to come back, to make sure you were Ok. Was it alright with Malfoy? He didn't upset you or anything did he?"

Rose smiled. "No. Actually it wasn't as bad as I thought. He's alright really you know."

Matt stared at her for a moment. "Merlin Rose, he hasn't slipped you a potion or something has he?"

She snorted, "I hope not. I'm off to bed. Are you going too?"

He followed her to the bottom of the stairs to the girls' dormitories and gave her a kiss. "Night Rose."

She smiled and then started climbing the stair, hearing him muttering to himself about potions as he wandered over to his own staircase. She yawned. It had been a long day and she couldn't wait to collapse into bed.

**AN: This is quite a long chapter with lots of dialogue I know, I got carried away, but let me know what you think. Also I know it seems as if it is all rosy between Rose and Scorpius just now but they have quite a way to go yet. I hope you enjoyed it. Please leave a review if you did or didn't, I really appreciate any constructive criticism too! **

**idlesparrow :D **


	4. Artemis and Apollo

_Flump!_

"Ow! What the hell was that?"

Rose opened her eyes to see the curtains of her four poster drawn back and three giggling faces looking down at her.

"Sorry man, you slept straight through the alarm. We had to wake you up some way." Rachel grinned at her friend, holding the pillow she had just used to wake her.

"Thanks a bunch guys." Rose groaned, rubbing her eyes.

"Why're you so tired anyway?" Tina asked.

"Yeh? Were you having fun with Scorpius till late last night" Louise snickered.

Rose gave her a look. "Actually I did sort of have fun I guess. Not in the way you mean though." she hastened to add.

"Really?" Rachel asked, surprised. So he wasn't as bad as you thought then?"

"Not really." Rose grabbed her wash bag and headed for the bathroom. "But then I was pretty much expecting the worst."

She went out the room, leaving the other three to stare at each other, rather surprised.

###

Rose and Tina went straight to Arithmancy classroom, being too late for breakfast. To their surprise they arrived in time to secure their favourite seats at the back, where they could talk unseen by the professor and people watch. For some reason Rose found herself looking around for Scorpius. After talking to him last night she was curious to see if he would still behave the same in the light of day, or look as tired as she felt after their late night patrol around the castle.

When he did enter, just in front of Professor Burke, she was rather put out to see that he didn't look as if he had suffered a disrupted night at all, but instead was seemed awake and alert, his hair as sleek and perfect as normal. Rose felt an overwhelming urge to smooth her own unruly waves, but instead she looked up and met his eyes, giving him a small smile. He kept her gaze for a moment, but then sat down a few seats along from her without giving any other sign of acknowledgement. Rose blushed, though she didn't know what she else she had expected anyway. She forced herself to look down at the test that he had correctly predicted was coming their way the night before. Despite her best efforts though, Rose found herself looking over at Scorpius sitting a few seats to her left. Once again he had the look of frowning concentration she recognised, and she noticed his lips moved slightly as he read the words on the parchment in front of him, taking in their meaning.

She jumped abruptly as Tina slid a torn piece of parchment towards her with her familiar loopy writing scrawled on it.

_What are you staring at? Are you planning on starting this test anytime soon? I need help on 2c!_

Rose glanced quickly at the clock on the wall and pulled the test towards her. She had better get started or Scorpius's threats of beating her would come true.

###

Before lunch that day Rose was sitting in the common room making use of one of her rare free periods to start her Potions essay. Before she could get started however she heard a sharp tapping on the window, and looked up to see Artemis hovering outside with a letter. She got up to open the window.

"That was quick." She said to the owl, stroking the side of her head. Rose had sent her parents a quick note yesterday morning, just to say they had arrived alright. She let Artemis fly back out the window to the Owlery and curled up in a nearby chair to read the letter in written in her Mother's neat script.

_Dear Rose,_

_Thank you for you letter. Dad and I are fine, he is of course moping around the house as he always does when you two leave, though he's denying being in a bad mood, as usual. We are both busy at work just now. Yesterday I had to deal with a particularly interesting case dealing with the rights bestowed on Merpeople, but I'll tell you about it when I next see you. How are your lessons so far? I hope you are up to date with your work. I'm sorry to hear about your prefect duty partner Dear, but give him a chance and do try to be civil. I know how you feel about him. You take after your Father, who I might add was not happy to hear that you are working with Scorpius, but I try to ignore him of course. _

_Can you ask Hugo to write to us with a list of what he forgot to take with him? I've found his keeper's gloves and dress robes here, but I'm sure he left more than that behind and it would be easier to send everything at once like we normally do (yes I know he left the dress robes behind on purpose, I don't care.) Tonight Dad and I are going out with Harry and Ginny to see what the new restaurant in Diagon Alley is like, the one we passed on the way to Flourish and Blotts?_

_I best be off Rose, Dad is getting impatient but he sends his love and is telling you to be good._

_Love from,_

_Mum x_

Rose smiled settled down to reply, making a mental not to chase down her brother at lunch.

###

Not long later she was interrupted by Matt tapping her on the shoulder.

He was looking down at her smiling. "Rose? I've called your name twice and you haven't looked up."

"Sorry, I didn't hear you. You know what I'm like when I'm concentrating." She smiled back at him.

"Yeh I know. I'd don't get how you can just drown everything else out like that. Anyway do you want to go to lunch?"

"Yeh I'm starving." she nodded. "Just let me put this away."

Rose and Matt headed down to the Great Hall, discussing how they felt their Quidditch practise was the previous day. When they got down the only seats free on the Gryffindor table were beside some forth year girls, one of who was their Beater Nat.

"Rose!" she grinned as her team mate sat down beside her. "I've been thinking of ways to get out of Al's next team talk if it starts going the same way as the last one."

Rose looked over her shoulder sneakily, then turned back and lowered her voice. "I'm listening."

"Ok so I've got some Nosebleed Nougat from your Uncle's shop. I'm thinking I come down with a disastrous nosebleed and you have to take me away to the medical centre."

"Oi!" Matt was listening in while pouring gravy. "What about the rest of us? We have to stay and listen?"

Rose laughed. "It wouldn't work anyway. It's not like Al hasn't seen it hundreds of times before in our family."

"Hmm." Nat crinkled her nose and swallowed her mouthful. "Oh well, I suppose we could always hire the Slytherins to come and create another disruption."

"I'd rather you didn't." Matt grumbled, his face clouding at the mention of the Slytherins. "They were bloody annoying yesterday, especially Malfoy. Hey Rose, you never really explained what happened on your patrol together. Are you sure he wasn't a prat to you and you just don't want to tell me?"

"Why wouldn't I tell you?" Rose raised an eyebrow.

"So I don't kill him." Matt explained as if it were obvious.

Rose snorted. "Please I can deal with him myself. And I told you he was actually alright."

"I don't see how he could have been. He's always been awful in the past."

"Yeh well it was fine. Can we change the subject? Actually has anyone seen Hugo?" Rose looked down the table. "I have a message for him from Mum."

"He's down at the other end talking to that awful Danielle Murray." Nat wrinkled her nose.

"Awful? I always thought she was alright…" Matt tailed off as both of the girls were giving him a look. "What?!"

"Well you would do." sighed Rose, stabbing a potato brutally. "You're a boy."

"Yeh she just has to flick that long blonde hair of hers and it's like bees and honey pot. Hugo looks like he's been hit on the head." Nat sounded disgusted, but then a thoughtful expression appeared on her face. "Mind you I could do that too. Behold the power of the beater bat!"

"Well feel free to hit my fool of a brother." Rose agreed, amused.

Matt looked for a moment like he was going to say something, but then thought better of it, choosing instead to turn the conversation to their approaching quidditch match, a hell of a lot safer.

###

When they had finished eating Rose left Matt on the way to the common room and headed up to the Owlery to post her reply back home. She didn't normally reply so quickly but she had fancied a walk, and a bit of quiet away from people, the Owlery was normally perfect for that.

On entering that afternoon however, she found there was already somebody there. As she opened the door she heard a gasp of surprise, and looking in she saw that Scorpius was standing there, having jumped up from where he was sitting, startled by her unexpected arrival. A large eagle owl who had been perched next to him was now flapping angrily beside him, hooting loudly. Scorpius looked strangely red in the face and seemed uncomfortable.

"Weasley," he stuttered. "Don't creep up on me like that. Shush Apollo." He tried calming the owl, but it flew grumpily up to the rafters.

"I uh…I came to send a letter," Rose mumbled awkwardly, inwardly cursing herself for saying something so stupidly obvious.

"Right." he said, looking down at the floor now. "Well, see you."

He brushed out past her quickly, without looking up to meet her eyes. Rose stared after him in confusion, then walked over to where Artemis was perched.

"Well," she addressed the owl. "What was wrong with him?"

She wrinkled her forehead in confusion. He had seemed pretty upset to her. In fact, unless she was very much mistaken, he looked like he'd been crying.

**AN: Thank you for reading! Please leave a review, I love to know that there are people out there sharing this with me. Any constructive criticism is very wecome!**

**idlesparrow :D**


	5. Self Surprising

Rose found that she couldn't get the image of Scorpius's face as she'd seen him in the Owlery out of her head. She was curious as to what was upsetting him, and, though it unsettled her, she felt she wanted to help him. Perhaps it was because she was so used to seeing him composed and snickering at her, maybe it unnerved her to see him in such a vulnerable position. Whatever it was, her concerns were relentless.

She thought about telling Rachel, just to get her take on the situation, but for some reason, she found she couldn't. Rose would have felt like she was betraying Scorpius in a way, exposing his moment of weakness to someone else, when she herself was not meant to have been privy to it in the first place. Not only that, but she knew Rachel was bound to find it odd that she was spending this much time thinking about him, and would probably interpret it in the wrong way entirely.

In the end, Rose decided that she rather wanted her next prefect duty session with Scorpius to come about, so she could perhaps find a way to put herself at ease. Despite him being in most of her lessons, it wasn't like she had any alone time with Scorpius apart from those evenings. If anything she felt she was having less contact with him, the week after she had met him in the Owlery. Possibly she was imagining it, but she did feel as if he were avoiding her. In the past he had used to drive her crazy in classes, teasing and annoying her, now he wouldn't so much as meet her eyes. It was all very odd.

Rose wouldn't have minded being so distracted as much if it had come at a less busy time. What with her N.E. approaching, her teachers were piling on more work than ever, and with Gryffindor's first match of the season against Slytherin approaching shortly, Al was going crazy with many long and exhausting practice sessions.

That Friday evening Rose was sitting with Matt by the fire in the Gryffindor Common Room trying to help him with his charms homework. She was just thinking how relieved she was that tomorrow was Saturday and she could have a break when Albus stood up and loudly announced that the team would be having an especially long practice session the next day, starting early in the morning.

Loud groans started coming from her fellow team members. Rose caught the eye of Nat on the other side of the room who was holding her wand to her head like a revolver.

"Hey! I was under the impression that we wanted to _win_." Albus' white face was enough to guilt trip them all into quitting their groans.

###

And so it was that the next morning Rose found herself bleary eyed and half asleep in the team changing rooms, listening vaguely to Al as he did his best to give them a rousing team talk. Matt and Robin Creevey were the only ones who were taking in everything Al was saying. Matt because Al was his best friend, and Robin because he was new, and seemed half terrified to be there. Lydia was staring into space and playing with her hair, and Hugo and Nat were quietly sniggering together in the corner. Rose found it was a relief when the talk was finished and she could fly in the sharp morning air, a great way to waken herself up.

Surprisingly, the practice was one of the best they'd had. Everyone seemed to be flying well and as the morning went on, their spirits were getting higher and higher, making them play better. Robin grew in confidence, and between him, Rose and Lydia, they managed to work out some great pass combinations for use in the next game. The beaters were hitting strongly and accurately and Hugo was pulling off some great saves. Indeed, when they stopped for a water break they found they were glad they had decided on an early morning session.

Rose sat on the grass and stretched out her legs, watching Nat shriek and run away from Hugo giggling as he splashed her with water.

"Hey." Lydia squatted down next to her and followed her line of sight. "Is there something going on between those two?"

"What?" said Rose, surprised. "I don't think so. Is there?"

"Looks to me like there is." Lydia grinned. "Look at them, they're all over each other."

Rose watched her brother dodging out of the way at Nat tried to retaliate the attack. "You know you may be right. I think I'll be having a word with my little brother." she smirked.

The girls' eyes followed the two chasing each other around for a while longer, and were rewarded with the added bonus of seeing Al get hit by a slosh of water intended for Hugo. Rose snorted in appreciation of his yells. Pity it put him in the mood for issuing extra laps around the pith though...

###

Later, with the session over, the team wandered back up to the castle for lunch, still in high spirits. Rose tried to get Hugo alone for a word but he was walking with the other boys and trying to reason with Albus as they went ahead. Instead she turned her attentions to Natalie, pulling her to the side.

"Uh, why are you giving me that weird look Rose?" Natalie looked like she was trying not to laugh.

"What weird look? This is my normal face." Rose said innocently.

"Merlin, what a pity." Nat shook her head in mock solemnity.

"Oh shut up." grumbled Rose, giving up all pretence. "What's going on between you and my brother?"

"Nothing!" Nat fought not to grin and Rose raised her eyebrows. "Well nothing really, I mean, it's not official or anything."

Rose squealed happily. "Aww you guys. You are crazy to want him by the way Nat, but it's sweet all the same. You have to let him know what you want, you idiot, he's thick as a plank at this stuff. All the good genes went to me you see?" she explained, grinning.

"Right." Nat sounded doubtful.

Rose narrowed her eyebrows at the younger girl pointedly.

"Alright! Alright. How am I mean to do that then?"

"Ah," Rose smiled wickedly, "that's where I can help you." She put her arm around Nat rather furtively as they approached the castle, deep in conversation.

###

"Don't you think it's sweet?" said Rose happily to Matt that afternoon. They were taking a walk around the lake, making the most of the autumn sunshine.

"Um, if you say so Rose." Matt smiled at his girlfriend. "But I thought you said the other night that Hugo was with that Danielle girl?"

"What? No! Why would he be with her? Nat and him are made for each other. I'm going to make sure it happens."

"I thought you said they were already together?"

"Well they basically are. Just need a little push."

"Rose, I don't think you should interfere." Matt said sceptically.

"I'm not, I'm helping!" she exclaimed, affronted.

"Alright fine. Do you want to play some exploding snap when we get back?"

Rose frowned at the blatant change of subject, she knew Matt didn't like arguing with her. "I can't, sorry. I wanted to get my Ancient Runes translation done. I'm going to go to the library."

Matt laughed. "Of course, I know how much you'll have missed the library all summer." He paused for a moment, grinning. "I'm actually pretty happy to be back here too. I missed you over the summer Rose."

She blushed, reaching up to tuck a red strand behind her ear. "I missed you too."

"In fact, I was thinking you could come visit me for part of the Christmas holidays? If you want." he said hopefully.

"Oh." Rose was taken aback. "Well maybe, I dunno. We normally do lots of family stuff at Christmas…" she tailed off as she noticed the hopeful look on his face waver.

"I guess I could come for a while," she said slowly, managing a smile.

The grin returned to Matt's face. "Awesome! It doesn't have to be for long or anything," he reassured her quickly. "And there's lots of places I want to show you..."

Rose continued to smile uneasily at him as he went on, describing where they could go on her visit. She was quite surprised at herself. For some reason she had panicked a little when he invited her to stay, and she didn't know why. Oh well, she would surely get used to the idea, it would be nice to stay with him for a bit after all. It had just been a surprise, that was all. Rose gave a stern nod, rebuking herself inwardly. Yes, that was all.

###

Rose bustled into the library later that day, her arms full of parchment and Ancient Runes books. Being a Saturday afternoon it was all but deserted, except for one person bent over his books at a round table at the back.

"Malfoy!" she said loudly, surprising herself, and making him jump.

"What is it with you and sneaking up on me nowadays?" Scorpius grumbled, his forehead creasing slightly as he regarded her.

"Sorry." she grinned, quite oblivious. She was inexplicably pleased to see him. "Can I sit here?"

"Be my guest," he drawled, and looked back down at his book.

They sat in silence for a few minutes. Rose spread her things on the table, settling down and opening her main textbook. Her eyes however, were inexplicably drawn to the boy opposite her. His face wore that intense look of concentration again.

"Is that a good book?" she asked suddenly, surprising herself again. She seemed to be doing that a lot these days.

Scorpius gave her an odd look. "It's our Charms textbook."

"Oh yes." Rose blushed. She had never noticed how long his eyelashes were before. Not only that, but they were surprisingly dark, especially in contrast with his blonde hair.

"Have you been avoiding me?" she blurted out.

"What?" he looked astonished.

"It's just, we haven't talked since I saw you in the Owlery. And normally you at least like to make jokes at me in class and whatever. I was just wondering if…if…" she tailed off as she saw his expression, inwardly cursing that she had ever opened her mouth.

"...if you were alright," she finished lamely.

"I'm perfectly fine," Scorpius said abruptly, his face darkening.

"Yes but," she stammered, "You seemed upset. You know, in the Owlery. You looked as if-"

"I said I'm fine!" he cut her off angrily, jaw twitching.

"Don't start making a big thing of it ok? I expect you've already told all your Gryffindor buddies that you saw Scorpius Malfoy crying his eyes out in the Owlery or whatever, so if you're just here to make fun of me then-"

"I haven't told them anything!" Rose exclaimed, shocked. "I wouldn't do that. And I wouldn't make fun of you either. I just wanted to talk to you 'cos I was _worried_ actually.

"Yeh well I don't need _you_ to worry about me." Scorpius had got to his feet and was gathering his books together scrappily. She had never seen him so discomposed.

"Stay out of my business." he snarled, and left the library without looking back.

Rose sat at the table with her mouth open in shock, reeling from the disgust in his tone. "Well," she muttered after making an attempt to compose herself. "I made a mess out of that didn't I?"

###

"What about that Ravenclaw guy who sits at the front in Arithmancy?" Louise asked loudly. "You know, the one with the dark hair?"

"Louise, you don't even know his name." Rachel rolled her eyes.

"I can find that out easily enough." Louise shrugged.

"He's called Michael," Rose said, exasperated. "And you've been in his class for two years."

"Well he doesn't say much, does he?" Louise tried to justify herself.

"Isn't he going out with that fifth year Hufflepuff girl?" Tina asked thoughtfully.

"Foiled again." Louise sighed dramatically.

The girls were each lazing in their pyjamas on their four poster beds, chatting loudly and eating ice cream willingly supplied by the House Elves. They had been trying to decide which lucky guy Louise should set her sights on next, after her failed relationship with last year's Head Boy, which hadn't stood up to the summer's separation. Luckily, Louise was unfazed by this.

"You know who's really fit?" she sat up suddenly.

"Who?" Tina narrowed her eyes suspiciously.

"The new Astrology professor!" Louise answered triumphantly. "What?!" she asked, seeing the looks on their faces. "He's young!"

"Whatever." Tina yawned. "How's it going with you and Matt, Rose?"

Rose looked down at her hands. "Oh. Pretty good actually. Today he asked me if I wanted to come visit him for a bit over Christmas?"

"Aww that's nice." Tina sighed. "You're going right?"

Rose shrugged. "I dunno. I have to see what my Mum says."

"Your parents'll be fine." Rachel grinned, "Well your Dad might take some convincing, but your Mum will talk him round."

"Yeh, maybe." Rose gave a small smile.

"Are you ok, Rose?" Rachel was looking concerned now. "You seemed a bit off today."

"I'm fine." Rose shrugged this off, thinking to herself that she was doing a good impression of how Scorpius had been earlier. Denying there was anything wrong.

The girls decided to play a few rounds of exploding snap and as they started searching for the cards Rose walked over to the window and looked out. She wondered if Scorpius was angry with her. For some mad reason, she couldn't stop thinking about his _eyelashes _of all things. Or the way his hand had dwarfed hers when he pulled her out of the trick stair. And why had she never noticed how broad his shoulders were before? Rose cringed. Maybe she was just tired and stressed out. She remembered Matt's offer to visit him over Christmas, and her face creased in guilt.

"_This is it." _she thought sadly. _"I have officially lost my mind."_

###

AN: I did enjoy writing this chapter, I hope you enjoyed reading it. Please let me know how you felt, either way! I welcome any advice also!

idlesparrow :D


	6. Spiffasprout Snot

"The clouds look fluffier than usual today," Louise's dreamy tone drifted up from the grassy bank of the lake, where four Seventh year girls were making the most of the unusual late September sunshine. For Rose, a Sunday afternoon without quidditch practice was not to be wasted, and even she had been persuaded to put her textbooks aside and make the most of the weather. Rose and Rachel exchanged a look over their friend's head, while Tina stated bluntly,

"You do talk a load of crap, Louise."

Louise propped herself up on an elbow, and grinned at them all cheerfully, shaking her long blonde hair off her face. "Hey, look, there's Al!" Louise shuffled up into a sitting position, dusting herself down and perfecting her pout. "Guys! Over here!" She waved enthusiastically over to where Al was walking with Matt. Rose rolled her eyes at Louise's enthusiasm. Luckily she'd gotten used to her ditzy friend and her boy-mad ways over the years, but she rather preferred it when it wasn't directed at her cousin. Louise did tend to go through boyfriends rather quickly.

Rose sighed and looked up to where the boys were approaching, directing a warm smile in Matt's direction. And that had nothing to do with the guilt she'd been feeling recently with all her thoughts about Scorpius. It _didn't. _

"You lot making the most of the weather too?" Matt asked cheerfully, flopping down on the grass next to Rose and slipping an arm around her.

"You bet," Louise answered for her, wide smile directed at Al. "There's a space next to me."

Rachel snorted, but managed to turn it into a cough. Rose fought not to catch either of her other two friends' eyes, instead biting her lip to stop herself laughing while she observed the confused expression on Al's face as he lowered himself to the ground next to her friend.

"How's the quidditch team coming along?" Louise asked him sweetly, batting long eyelashes.

Rose groaned inwardly, totally the wrong topic to get her cousin started on at the moment.

At the mention of quidditch, Albus managed to break out of his dopey state, his brow furrowing fiercely.

"It was wrong to have a day off training today!" he stated fiercely. "Look at this, perfect conditions for quidditch! I knew we should have booked the pitch."

Matt leaned back to relax, eyes on the lake rather than his friend. He was indifferent to the day off, but he did think it would do Al some good to let go of the quidditch stress for a while.

"Gotta let other teams get it some of the time mate," he grinned.

"Yeh," Rose interrupted, "And give your own team a break. Otherwise you'll have a mutiny on your hands, l'll make sure of it. If Nat doesn't first that is."

"But that's just it!" Albus sighed in exasperation, choosing to ignore Rose's comment and looking at Matt instead. "We shouldn't be _letting_ other teams get the pitch. Slytherin are probably out there right now. _Improving_. And we're just letting them. They're probably thinking up more evil schemes to get at us..." Albus tailed off, muttering to himself under his breath.

Four pairs of bemused eyes turned to regard him.

"Talking to yourself is the first sign of madness," Tina commented dryly. "That right Louise?"

"Huh?" The blonde had gotten bored of the quidditch talk, already forgetting her flirtation plans with Al as she watched the squid's tentacle protruding out of the lake before disappearing. Louise could never keep her interest in one place for long.

"Never mind."

"Anyway," Matt broke in, steering the conversation back. "Slytherin aren't practising today Al."

"How do you know?"

"Because I had the misfortune of banging into their captain on my way to meet you."

"Oh?" Rose looked up suddenly, attention drawn at the mention of Scorpius. Their last meeting had done nothing to quell her worries about him. If anything it served to make her think about him all the more, something which exasperated her to no end.

"Yep," Matt nodded. "Passed him on the second floor. Drooling all over some poor girl."

Rose felt her body stiffen. "Who?!" She asked it before she could stop herself.

Matt tilted his head down to look at her in surprise. "I don't know, some blonde. Why do you care?"

She paused for a moment, flustered. "I don't. I just...wasn't he seeing Rhiannon?"

"I thought you didn't like her," Louise woke from her reverie at what Rose thought was a very inappropriate moment.

"I _don't_. Still it's not...proper, is it?"

Tina raised an eyebrow at her friend in amusement. "You sound like my Grandma."

"Malfoy always has lots of girls on the go anyway," supplied Rachel helpfully.

"Yes, poor fools," Matt agreed.

"Oh I don't know." This conversation was far more interesting to Louise than the ins and outs of quidditch practice. "I wouldn't say no."

"_Louise!_" The resounding chorus around the little group had the blonde blinking in surprise, but before she could say anything Albus started up again,

"When you've all finished discussing the merits of Scorpius Malfoy's love life!" He glared around the circle. "Bloody hell! Can we get back to what's important?!"

Rose sat back and leaned on Matt as the others all tried to reassure Al that the team _were _indeed doing enough to prepare for the next match. She frowned slightly, thankful that they'd managed to get off the topic of Scorpius. She was angry with herself for her small outburst though. Scorpius Malfoy could kiss every girl in the damn school if he wanted. Except herself that was. And it wouldn't bother her _one bit_. She sighed, and burrowed more into Matt's side.

###

Pulling her dragon hide gloves carefully onto her hands, Rose kneeled forward to inspect the drooping purple plant in front of her, her expression a perfect imitation of one of her Mother's.

"Have you got the scarf, Al?"

"Hmm?"

Sighing, Rose straightened up and folded her arms. "We're meant to be working on this together. What's so distracting-" She cut herself off, following her cousin's gaze to where Rachel and Louise were struggling to pull a woolly hat over the top of their spiffasprout in the corner.

Adopting her best no nonsense tone, she stared him down. "Don't even go there. "

"Where?" Eyes widened in an impression of complete innocence, Al shrugged. "I was just looking for tips. Want our pod to heal first don't you?"

Rose just stared at him. If he expected her to believe that then he was even denser than she already thought he was. Still, he was male. It was only to be expected. Besides, the view from the corner seemed to have distracted her cousin's mind away from the Gryffindor team. Rose hadn't been looking forward to a lesson full of Al ranting on at her again.

They were inside the greenhouses for an early morning of double Herbology, set to work on discovering the best way to heal plantpox. The spiffasprouts of Greenhouse 5 had come down with a particularly virulent form of the disease. Theirs was now shivering in front of them, new blue spots appearing on its leaves every minute.

"Hand me the scarf before I'm forced to strangle you with it."

This time Al complied. It was probably just an empty threat, but it was best not to underestimate Weasley women. And he should know, he'd spent enough of his life in their company.

"James wrote to me yesterday," Albus said conversationally, sloshing some anti-itch cream onto the sprout's leaves rather haphazardly.

"You're meant to dab it on gently! How is he?" It was weird this year not to have the presence of her older cousin around Gryffindor Common Room, annoying her.

"I am being gentle! Fine I suppose. Wants us all to go and watch his match in the Christmas holidays. Dunno why, he'll be on the bench anyway."

Rose wrinkled her nose. "Al, you're a crap brother. And an even crapper Herbologist. Give me that!"

Albus held the pot back out of her reach, pulling a face childishly. "I can do it!"

"Give it here!"

Beginning to snigger at the look on his cousin's face, Albus kept his grip on the cream resolutely. "You're such a control freak." His snickers died however with one glance at the plant in front of Rose. "Hey, is it meant to be shaking like that?"

Distracted, Rose frowned, leaning in closer to the plant to see what was wrong. The next moment, the spiffasprout let out a giant sneeze.

"EURGH!"

"Merlin, Rose!" Albus was suddenly laughing so hard that not even the death glare Rose turned on him could stop him. Still glowering, Rose raised a damp hand to push dripping wet locks of hair back off her face. One thing was for certain. For a small plant, that thing could produce a hell of a lot of snot.

###

Luckily enough, Rose only had a few moments to wait before the class ended. Stalking back to the Gryffindor Girls' Dormitory, she was still struggling to see the funny side. Not only did she look like a snotball, this stuff smelled absolutely _foul_.

"I am taking the longest shower of my life," she muttered quietly, quickening her pace somewhat. She'd rather not be seen too much in public looking like this either. Turning to walk down the second floor corridor, Rose met a sight that almost had her turning back round again to walk in the opposite direction. Scorpius was lounging on the wide stone windowsill halfway along the corridor, his arm laid lazily around the shoulders of Rhiannon Pucey.

_Guess he got bored of the blonde then._

The last time she'd seen the Slytherin boy he'd walked out on her in anger. Actually, she _was_ curious to see what he'd do now. But it wasn't worth being seen like this for. Rose made to take a step backwards, but stopped short a moment later, inwardly groaning as she realised his grey eyes had turned towards her. She couldn't walk away now he'd seen her. What if he thought she was avoiding him out of embarrassment or something? Taking a deep breath Rose started walking forwards, head held high. She wasn't about to let him think she cared about him seeing her like this. Or with Rhiannon. Because she didn't.

Rhiannon flicked her hair back over her shoulder, head turning as she noticed Scorpius' gaze was on something behind her. As she saw Rose, a slow sneer stretched over her face.

"What the hell is that smell?" she asked loudly, sliding closer to Scorpius. "Oh it's you Weasley. Should have known."

_Just ignore her. Just walk on by_. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?!" Rose couldn't stop herself. She'd never been the best at avoiding confrontation.

"Oh nothing," chimed Rhiannon, voice dripping in mock sweetness. "Let's just say it's normally easy to tell when you're in the vicinity." She reached up to stroke Scorpius' cheek possessively. Rose felt her shoulders stiffen of their own accord. Why he would allow himself to be pawed around by _her_, she couldn't understand.

"Isn't it Scorp?" Rhiannon prompted.

Scorpius had been watching the proceedings with a lazy interest, self-satisfied smirk ever present on his face. At her comment however, he turned his grey eyes to look straight in Rose's brown ones.

"It definitely is." He wasn't lying.

At his answer however, Rose felt her stomach twisting. How could she have been such a fool enough as to believe he might actually be a nice guy underneath that cool smirk? Here he was proving her wrong again. Forcing up her worst scowl, Rose glared at the blonde boy before turning to retort back to Rhiannon instead.

"For your information I've just been sneezed on by a sick spiffasprout, which is why I'm covered in crap right now. But seeing as you failed remedial Herbology at OWL level, I wouldn't expect you to understand."

Ok, that was bitchy, but right now she didn't care. She was pissed. Rose stormed off past them, very much living up to the stereotypes of her hair colour. And why the hell did it feel like Scorpius' indifference hurt her more than Rhiannon's insults? Rose could hex herself for being so stupid. Matt was right about him all along.

"Emma!" she screeched at a fifth year prefect appearing from around the corner, barely noticing the girl jump as she startled her.

"Sorry. I need you to do my duty for me tonight. Please? Something's come up. I'll swap and do yours instead?"

Rose wasn't walking the halls with _him_ tonight. Luckily, convincing Emma to spend an evening with Scorpius wasn't as hard as Rose has expected. Walking on, she sighed. Someone should really open these girls' eyes to what a git he truly was. Still, it wasn't her job. She was keeping her distance from him from now on.

Finally reaching her dormitory, Rose stomped towards her four poster to grab her towel off the hook. Rachel, sitting at her desk with a textbook sent her a confused look, but before she could open her mouth to speak Rose held up a hand to silence her.

"_Please_," she hissed, making for the door again, "Don't even ask."

###

**AN: Hello again. I'm not really happy with this chapter for some reason, it just didn't seem to turn out the way I wanted. Bit of a filler too. But oh well, any comments or advice are very much appreciated as always! Let me know what you think **

**idlesparrow**


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